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Nick Compton, the former England opener, is to leave Somerset despite having signed a three-year deal with the club in 2013.

He is understood to have become disillusioned with life in the county game and unhappy about living so far from his home in Richmond, London.

While he has yet to sign for another county – he is understood to be taking some time away from the game to reflect on his options – there seems a decent chance he will, in time, re-join Middlesex. He represented the club from 2004 to 2009 and has a strong affinity for their home ground of Lord’s, where a stand is named after his grandfather, Denis Compton.

The move is a considerable blow to Somerset. Compton topped their Championship batting averages in 2013 and has scored 5,140 first-class runs an average of 55.87 since joining the club. He is the third top-order batsman to leave the club – excluding overseas players – in little more than 18 months. Chris Jones and Arul Suppiah both retired in recent times and Marcus Trescothick is, aged 38, in the autumn of his career.

The club have accepted, though, that Compton’s unhappiness is genuine and will neither hold him to his contract or pursue compensation payments. They hope that a move back to London – where Compton’s partner lives – may prove beneficial and understand that he is keen to explore opportunities in the media with a view to his career after his playing days.

After nine Tests in which he registered two centuries, Compton was devastated to be dropped on the verge of the 2013 Ashes and has since seen several younger men – the likes of Sam Robson, Adam Lyth and Alex Lees – overtake him in the race for a Test place. While he has continued to score consistently, the experience has weighed heavily on Compton. Being overlooked for the recent Lions squad seems to be confirmation that England do not see him as part of their future plans.

“I have loved playing for Somerset, but I have decided to re-locate more permanently to my base in south-west London,” Compton said. “I have always set myself the highest of professional standards, and I don’t want to compromise myself or the club, going forward.”‎

“I appreciate Somerset’s understanding of my wish to balance both my personal and professional life. The club will always have a special place in my heart and I owe Brian Rose a huge debt of gratitude for the privileged opportunity he gave me to become a Somerset cricketer, which in turn has enabled me to fulfil a number of cricketing goals.”

“I am sorry to see Nick depart as he is a quality cricketer,” director of cricket, Matt Maynard, said. “But it is fundamentally important that he, or any player for that matter, wants to be here and is able to perform to the best of their ability; sadly this is not something Nick feels able to achieve at this time”.

But Ben Stokes (38) and Gareth Breese (15) restored calm to get home on 166-7 with more than nine overs in hand.

Breese, one of only three survivors from Durham’s only previous one-day final appearance (their Friends Provident Trophy win over Hampshire in 2007), struck the winning runs in what was likely to be his final appearance for the county.

He had also contributed wonderfully with the ball earlier in the day, taking 3-30 from seven overs.

But man of the match Stokes was even more influential. After returning figures of 2-25 with the ball, despite two dropped catches, he kept a cool head with the bat in a nail-biting finale that was in marked contrast to his heroic semi-final innings, when he blasted 164 off 113 balls to see off Notts.

Will Smith’s unbeaten 142 enabled promotion-chasing Hampshire hold out for a draw against Kent in Southampton.

After a morning washout, the 31-year-old, who resumed on 66, put on with Liam Dawson (40) before the latter was bowled by James Tredwell (4-110).

James Vince made a swift 27, but Adam Riley (4-36) swept the hosts batting line-up aside in tandem with Tredwell.

But Smith and James Tomlinson clung on for 11.4 overs as Hampshire ended on 248-9 to save the game.

Smith, who passed a 1,000 first-class runs during the match, spent over five-and-a-hours at the crease and hit 16 fours in his innings.

It was the 12th draw between the two counties in their last 16 Championship matches, with Hampshire having claimed three wins and Kent one in the other four games.

Following Essex’s innings and 79-run victory over Leicestershire,Hampshire head into their final Championship match knowing that only a victory will guarantee promotion to Division One for the first time since 2011.